Snapdeal Goes Idea Shopping

FCB Ulka, the brand's current creative agency, to stay on board. Snapdeal might look at splitting its creative duties between FCB Ulka and another agency, in the days ahead.

Online shopping site Snapdeal.com is currently in the process of evaluating advertising agencies. While the company made sure to clarify, when asked, that this is "not an official pitch", the spokesperson, however, told afaqs! that the brand team at Snapdeal is in the midst of looking at "new ideas" from a few creative agencies.

The evaluation process is currently in its nascent stages and is underway in Delhi. A few small to mid-sized creative agencies, we learn, are already in conversation with Snapdeal, and are in the process of sharing credentials/making initial presentations.

The development comes on the back of the sheer amount of ad-media work that Snapdeal is currently faced with completing. The team wants more hands on deck, understandably so. The brand has been visibly active on the communication front, in the recent past.

Recall that recently, around Diwali, Snapdeal released (and very famously so) a high decibel ad campaign that comprised a total of 40 TVCs, produced by Offroad Films. In the context of the current pitch, when the spokesperson mentioned "high volumes of advertising work," it was easy to fathom what she meant.

"Given the volume of advertising work," said this member of Sandeep Komaravelly's core team at Snapdeal, "we are looking at ideas from other ad agencies. We are very happy with FCB Ulka's work, have no problem with them, and will continue to work with them in the future." Komaravelly is vice-president, marketing, Snapdeal.com.

FCB Ulka was appointed by Snapdeal three years back. In fact, last year, this time, the agency managed to retain the account after Snapdeal conducted a rigorous creative review.

We analysed this practice in a recent cover story and learned that marketers dub this now common trend, of exploring creative ideas outside of what one's on-record agency has to offer, 'harmless flirting'. For us, the most noteworthy take-away from the story was the fact that most brand marketers no longer feel the need to do away with their respective incumbent agencies while they 'flirt' with others; they are open to the idea of exploring, and sampling, other options while retaining the services of their mainline creative agencies.

Snapdeal was also in the news recently for its ambush marketing tactics in print media; on the day of Flipkart's much touted Big Billion Day Sale (October 6) - the day Flipkart ran a front page ad in The Times of India to promote the sale - Snapdeal ran an ad on the back page of the very same paper. It said 'For Others it is a Big Day. For us, today is no different'.

Omnicom Media Group is Snapdeal's media planning and buying agency.

Snapdeal was launched in February 2010. The brand provides a platform for vendors across the country to connect with customers. It offers products across categories including mobiles, laptops, home appliances, cameras, apparel, accessories like watches, automotive products and health products, among many others.

According to the company's website, Snapdeal has a network of over 50,000 merchants/brands, over 20 million members and customers across 4,000+ towns and cities.